It’s Friday of our second week here in Kuala Lumpur and we’re beginning to settle into a nice routine. Every morning this week starting Monday, we’ve spent 45 minutes or so in the gym. The first morning I only used two machines, running and cross trainer. Not having done any particularly strenuous exercise for a while coupled with no longer going to work, I think I was probably as out of condition as ever. So that first morning really did me in even though I took it relatively easy. However, five sessions later and it’s beginning to get easier and I’m slowly doing more each time. This morning I did 11 minutes on the running machine although I didn’t feel great about the running today. Some days the breathing just doesn’t feel so good and others you feel like you’re flying, maybe just biorhythms or something, I don’t know. Another 11 minutes on the cross trainer and then 11 on the cycle. The first time I went on the cycle I did the equivalent of two kilometres according to the machine but by this morning it was 3.3 kilometres so I’m definitely making progress. it’ll be interesting to see what progress we’ve both made by the middle of September when we return to the UK. Although after an initial feeling of home sickness for the first few days I’m already beginning to think I won’t want to return to the UK! After the gym we always spend half an hour in the pool which cools you off a treat, I’ve wondered whether the dip in the pool might be the reason I never seem to get any aches or pains after the gym. Who knows? Is it likely that using the pool to cool off properly after exercise might eliminate after effects? If there’s anyone out there reading this, let me know in the comments if you have any theories! It’s an Infinity pool and I’m guessing it’s at least as long as an olympic sized pool. Most days we have the whole thing to ourselves but occasionally there’s a young guy who teaches swimming usually one on one with a young girl. Sounds like a shit job but somebody’s gotta do it I suppose.
Right next to the pool there’s a barbecue area where this morning there were six young Muslim women and their children having a get together around the table. They weren’t doing anyone any harm but the noise was roughly equivalent to about 200 school girls having their high school prom. Jibber jabber of the highest order!!
Earlier this week, Wednesday to be precise. We spent the afternoon at the Zoo. Lynne booked a Grab through the App on her phone and we made our way there, arriving at 2.00 pm. The taxi driver was one of the talkative ones which is nice but unfortunately we struggled to understand anything he said. It’s funny how some drivers talk non stop and others sit in stony silence. Jumping ahead slightly the driver for the return journey had a Chelsea FC badge in his car and I commented on it thinking we might get a conversation out of him but no, we were to be disappointed, apparently he’d had his personality surgically removed! 🤨
Anyway, back to the Zoo, Zoo Negara to be exact. My reason for visiting this particular zoo was that it apparently has a first class Giant Panda Conservation programme which I thought would be interesting. So, arriving at 2.00 pm we paid 82 Ringets each (£15) to get in and almost immediately through the entrance we entered the butterfly garden. Here you get the chance to walk around with butterflies flying all around you. It’s nice but the biggest prettiest butterflies never seem to land long enough to be able to photograph them. We quickly moved on to some more interesting subjects, ie, the first animal display was a rather magnificent female Giraffe with her young calf?
Looking at this lovely animal you can’t help but be reminded of the occasional pictures you see of proud hunters posing with their fresh kill. I mean really, how difficult must it be to stalk and kill one of these proud beasts. They don’t really pose any danger to a human and they can hardly hide now can they! I saw one the other week where a woman (American of course) posed with a black Giraffe that she had just killed. The animal was obviously classed as rare and my only hope is that Karma does really work and she gets what’s coming to her in a big and not very nice way! Ok, short rant over!!
As we moved on we came to a large lake and walking to the edge Lynne and I both exclaimed at almost the same moment that it was like something from Jurassic Park. This is called the Milky Stork Exhibit and reading about them since, I’ve found that they are considered in danger of extinction in the wild. However, in this so called exhibit there seemed to be hundreds if not thousands of them and the noise they made was cacophonous to put it mildly. They were everywhere, in the trees all around us and flying all around. Strangely in light of that reference to them being endangered in the wild, I couldn’t see anything that stopped every one of these birds from flying away any time they liked. I took photos of hundreds of them in the trees but they ended up looking like a forest with lots of indistinct white things in the trees so I’m not including any of them here, they’re simply not good enough.
Moving on we saw what I’m pretty sure were Emu’s, whatever they were they’re bloody ugly looking things. Here’s the evidence.
We soon came to the Lions and Tigers. I’d heard them roaring almost since we got to the zoo and couldn’t wait to see them. You never know if you’re gonna be able to take photographs without fencing. In this instance I’m happy to say that all that separated us from them was a low concrete wall and a stretch of water. You’d think a Tiger wouldn’t be deterred by such a small obstacle but they seemed pretty relaxed when we got there. First were the Lions. A male and female who looked happy enough in their enclosure but I couldn’t help thinking the male Lion looked a bit down at heel. I don’t really know but I imagined from the look of him, that he was quite old. This gives me another chance to sing the praises of the Nikon D850. You wouldn’t believe how much of the original picture I’ve cropped out to achieve this image. I would estimate that I’ve discarded something like 85% of the original file and I’m still left with relatively good detail. I hope you approve!
The I hope you approve comment in the above sentence was added because without it the justify function stretches all the words on that line out so that in theory you could have two words and they would sit on either side of the page. That looks quite stupid and I don’t know how to get round it. In actual fact I’m not too bothered whether you approve or not, if you’ve read this far you’re probably not quite the ticket anyway! Just saying!
In the next enclosure was a lone Tiger. Absolutely stunningly beautiful creature and quite happy to sit as close as his enclosure allowed for photo opportunities.
I was enjoying photographing these magnificent beasts but quietly thinking I can’t wait to return with a bigger lens. In the next enclosure were two White Tigers. They seem to spend most of their time in the water at the front of the enclosure. With the camera on live view and the articulated screen pointing down I managed to hold the camera up and get pictures from less than six feet away. Unbelievable to be that close to these animals and there be no danger. The concrete wall was topped with iron railings angled inward so I don’t think there’s any chance they could get out. I certainly wouldn’t want to be there if they ever did. You don’t realise until close up how massive they are! Anyway here’s a picture of a slightly grubby looking White Tiger less than six feet away.
There are a number of other big cats but not in such big enclosures, I came across this Cheetah resting in the shade. Unfortunately I could only photograph her through the wire and the assumption that it was a she was based on the way she hissed at me as I took the picture! Unfortunately the effect I seem to have on most women.😫 Beautiful creature though and I was probably four feet away at most when I took this.
Moving swiftly on we walked on until we got to the Elephants enclosure. I wasn’t quite as impressed with this as there were two Elephants and they weren’t doing a song and dance routine. Joking aside they looked happy enough but I couldn’t help noticing that every tree in the enclosure had what looked like electrical wiring around the trunks. Was this there to keep the animals away from the trees for some reason? If so I can’t imagine it enhancing life for those Elephants. Walking on we came to the star attraction, for me anyway, the Giant Pandas. This is an indoor display and very impressive. It’s a huge building purposely built with lots of different terrain and climbing opportunities to keep the animals entertained. Unfortunately when we walked in there were three Pandas all fast asleep. I wonder if that’s mostly all they ever do? Still it was interesting to see them given how rare they are these days. It was nice to see them so well looked after, Zoo Negara clearly takes Giant Panda Conservation very seriously. Thankfully as we made our way through, one of the younger Pandas seemed to wake up and have a good stretch and yawn giving us a good display of all his teeth. Absolutely no fillings either!
After leaving the Pandas to their sleep we walked on up the hill to see the Orang-utan. They have a huge area given over to them so it was a little surprising to see only one Orang-utan out and he seemed to be at the door waiting to be let back in. He was a magnificent big guy with incredibly long hair all over his body. He didn’t seem too pleased to see us though and I had to be pretty quick on the shutter to get a photo of his face as he kept it turned away from us most of the time we were there.
Leaving the somewhat grumpy Orang-utan behind we carried on to an area called Savanah Walk. There was a viewing platform in the middle and looking in either direction it was possible to see Ostrich, Zebra, more Giraffe and Rhinoceros. Absolutely amazing that with a little imagination you could be in the wild with all these creatures free to roam around you. I have to say that while I’d wondered what a zoo in Malaysia might be like I find myself very impressed overall. It’s fair to say that some of the pathways and facilities for Humans might have seen better days, but there is no denying the animals seem to be very well cared for. We only gave ourselves three hours to look around (closing time at 5.00 pm) and there was still lots we hadn’t seen when it came time to leave. I have no doubts we will visit again (with a longer lens) having thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon which seemed to go by so quickly.
On the way out we kept seeing bins turned over on their sides with all the contents strewn all over the place. There were a number of those big Milky Storks about but I couldn’t imagine them upturning bins like that to get at the contents. As we got close to the exit we found out who the culprits were as there was a small troupe of Macaque Monkeys feeding out of the last bin before the exit. Little buggars! I wonder if that’s a daily occurrence when they know all the bins will be full of all sorts of discarded goodies?
Wandering Wildman 